Update 25 July 2016: We can’t see the war for the memorials: balancing education and commemoration

Update 24 July 2016: Great War remembrance high in cost, low on inclusion for Australians

Terry Sweetman in Brisbane’s Sunday Mail notes the high cost of Great War commemoration, the domination by dignitaries at overseas events, and the superfluity of the Monash museum at Villers-Bretonneux.

There were items from Nick Miller in The Age, and on the ABC; and again. More from Shire at War. SBS had some photographs from the time. Tony Wright in Fairfax. The notice paid to these battles was much less (and much less gung-ho) than that paid to Gallipoli, 15 months ago, understandably.

Me and my shadow

After the recent democratic exercise, Anzac centenary minister Dan Tehan has returned to the job formally. Honest History congratulates the Minister on his re-election as Member for Wannon and his remaining in the Ministry.

The Minister put out a press release last week on Fromelles commemoration and it has now appeared on his website. (More; the Minister is at Fromelles.) As we have said before, we hope his speeches get onto the website in due course.

In the opposing trenches, there were suggestions that David Feeney, member for Batman, might not hang onto his shadow responsibilities, which included veterans’ affairs and the centenary of Anzac. We shall see. Meanwhile, Honest History congratulates the Member for Batman on his re-election.

The QACCAC Newsletter and website reminds us that ‘From Boulia to Brisbane, organisations big and small are planning all sorts of events and projects to mark the centenary of the First World War’. It provides details of upcoming events. Meanwhile, the work of the former long-time president of the ADCC, Colonel Arthur Burke OAM (Ret’d), still features on the ADCC website, for example, his classic essay, ‘The Spirit of ANZAC‘, which Honest History has often used as an example of ‘Anzackery’, the overblown version of the Anzac legend. (There is comment on this essay by the late Governor of Tasmania, Peter Underwood.)

Bomber Command remembered

Descendants of Australian members of the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command during World War II are lobbying for the Australian Government to issue a Bomber Command medal. Bomber Command was the most dangerous place to be an Australian serviceman during World War II and the planes these men flew also inflicted massive casualties on civilians on the ground. Honest History can pass on contact details for the medal campaign: admin@honesthistory.net.au.

Honest History’s Alternative Guide to the Australian War Memorial goes from strength to strength

The Alternative Guide has been downloaded 1411 times in the 12 weeks since Anzac Day. It is unfortunate that the Australian War Memorial has declined Honest History’s offer to make a presentation to the Council on the Alternative Guide but, as we said when we heard this, ‘perhaps the Memorial made up its mind long ago that the story it tells should not be a subject for debate’.

Honest History remains of the view that an organisation which believes in itself and its story should have no qualms about contesting in the marketplace of ideas. Meanwhile, Honest History’s David Stephens will be discussing the Alternative Guide at conferences in August and September of the Tasmanian History Teachers’ Association, the Professional Historians Association Victoria, and the History Teachers’ Association of Australia. Honest History welcomes other invitations to talk about the Alternative Guide.

John Schumann’s ’19’ guitar

The guitar on which singer-songwriter John Schumann composed the Vietnam War anthem ‘I was only 19’ has been donated to the Australian War Memorial. The significance of the guitar and the song was discussed here and here. The guitar will be a central part of the Memorial’s commemoration of Australia’s Vietnam involvement around the 50th anniversary (18 August) of the Battle of Long Tan, in which there were 42 Australian and approximately 600 Vietnamese casualties.

‘Waltzing Matilda’ versions

On songs also, our Melbourne scout Gerry Schulz has pointed us to two versions of Eric Bogle’s ‘The band played Waltzing Matilda‘ which we had not come across before, one from The Pogues and one from June Tabor. We reckon Tabor wins hands-down. See what you think.

Both videos are on the excellent Stop the War Coalition website, which is well worth exploring. When it comes to anti-war songs, context counts for a lot.

Director Nelson speaks

Honest History has been reading closely the speeches of War Memorial Director, Brendan Nelson. He will be speaking tomorrow at the National Press Club, Canberra, on the subject of ‘Fromelles to Pozières – we remember’. More to come on this subject.

Working in the Discovery Zone

Back to school in Canberra this week but the War Memorial got in one last promo (in the ‘Panorama’ section of the hard copy Canberra Times) for school holiday visitors to the Memorial’s ‘Discovery Zone’, where ‘kids can experience what it would be like to work in a trench, a helicopter, or a submarine’ (emphasis added). The bland deceptiveness of this language continues the Memorial’s tradition of the sanitised presentation of war to children.

ABC Monash decision

Honest History recently reported the ABC’s search for a film-maker to produce a documentary on Sir John Monash for showing on various media and at the $100 million Sir John Monash Interpretive Centre in rural France. We understand a decision will soon be announced. Watch this space.

Dunera boys

The young men who came to Australia on the Dunera during World War II have made a distinguished contribution to our national life. They and their descendants continue to meet and prosper and their most recent newsletter is here.

‘Bill’ Sweeting

Alan John (‘Bill’) Sweeting MBE, born 1918, was a member of the team of journalists and historians who wrote the official history of Australia in World War II. Sweeting contributed 200 pages about Australian prisoners of war and in the early 1970s supervised the writing and production of the final volumes of the history.

Journalist Alan Ramsey wrote in 2006 about Bill Sweeting and others involved in the World War II history. Bill Sweeting died on 9 July in his 98th year. ‘Bill was a true gentleman’, his family’s death notice said, ‘an accomplished writer, editor, historian, a keen sportsman and an avid reader’.